Significant Security Threats in Native Advertising

Ad security and verification solution GeoEdge has released a report that takes a look at the security implications of native advertising on publishers' websites.

The results aren't good at all.

In "The Vulnerabilities in Native Advertising" report, the company suggests that as more publishers turn to native ads in an effort to counter rapidly decreasing and depressed CPMs, they are finding the format is not only controversial but potentially dangerous from a security standpoint.

Disclosure has long been a point of contention for advertisers and publishers when it comes to the use of native formats, but there are also technical issues that could cause a hugely negative impact in the native ecosystem. Since the format relies on scripts to handle delivery and targeting, for example, a wide range of security risks (post-click infection, delivery path corruption, landing page hijacking, etc.) are emerging according to the GeoEdge report.

"Native advertising is fast becoming one of the more preferable ways to monetize publishers' inventory. However, many publishers are not aware that native ads do not reduce the threats of malvertising. The risk is even more acute as users may lower their guard when interacting with these ads," said Amnon Siev, CEO.